5 ways to protect your home, safety before weekend bitter cold

SMITHFIELD, R.I. (WLNE) — With bitterly cold temperatures to come, a local heating company outlined a few steps to take to safeguard your home — and safety.

“I’m concerned for our customers safety,” said Carissa Haddad of Carjon Heating and Cooling in Smithfield.

She outlined five steps to take to protect your home this weekend.

“If you have a warm air furnace, you are going to make sure that it is nice and clean — change your filter now,” she said. “If you have propane or oil, you’re going to make sure you have enough fuel in your tank.”

She added secondly, “Even if you are not occupying a certain area of your home, you don’t want to shut the heat off completely. People have a tendency of turning off zones to save energy. That’s just kind of an invitation for pipe freezing.”

“You’ll want to turn your faucet to a slow drip to keep the water flowing through the pipes,” she added as the third step.

Carjon Heating and Cooling also recommended Rhode Islanders to never bring outdoor heaters inside.

Haddad said their technicians will be working around the clock to assist heating systems across the state.

Expecting some heat systems to overwork themselves and go out, Haddad concluded, “I would make sure that you have fresh batteries in your carbon monoxide detectors and your smoke detectors. If there is ever a situation where your heating system stops operating correctly, those are those are good things to have.”